What To Do When Your Social Media Account Gets Hacked

You log in to your favorite social media site and notice a string of posts or messages definitely not posted by you. Or, you get a message that your account password has been changed, without your knowledge. It hits you that your account has been hacked. What do you do?

This is a timely question considering that social media breaches have been on the rise. A recent survey revealed that 22%of internet users said that their online accounts have been hacked at least once, while 14% reported they were hacked more than once. And, earlier this year Facebook itself got hacked, exposing the identity information of 50 million users.

Your first move—and a crucial one—is to change your password right away, and notify your connections that your account has been hacked. This way your friends know not to click on any suspicious posts or messages that appear to be coming from you because they might contain malware or phishing attempts. But that’s not all. There may be other, hidden threats to having your social media account hacked.

The risks associated with a hacker poking around your social media have a lot to do with how much personal information you share. Does your account include personal information that could be used to steal your identity, or guess your security questions on other accounts?

These could include your date of birth, address, hometown, or names of family members and pets. Just remember, even if you keep your profile locked down with strong privacy settings, once the hacker logs in as you, everything you have posted is up for grabs.

You should also consider whether the password for the compromised account is being used on any of your other accounts, because if so, you should change those as well. A clever hacker could easily try your email address and known password on a variety of sites to see if they can log in as you, including on banking sites.

Next, you have to address the fact that your account could have been used to spread scams or malware. Hackers often infect accounts so they can profit off clicks using adware, or steal even more valuable information from you and your contacts.

You may have already seen the scam for “discount Ray-Ban” sunglasses that plagued Facebook a couple of years ago, and recently took over Instagram. This piece of malware posts phony ads to the infected user’s account, and then tags their friends in the post. Because the posts appear in a trusted friend’s feed, users are often tricked into clicking on it, which in turn compromises their own account.

So, in addition to warning your contacts not to click on suspicious messages that may have been sent using your account, you should flag the messages as scams to the social media site, and delete them from your profile page.

Finally, you’ll want to check to see if there are any new apps or games installed to your account that you didn’t download. If so, delete them since they may be another attempt to compromise your account.

Now that you know what do to after a social media account is hacked, here’s how to prevent it from happening in the first place.

How To Keep Your Social Accounts Secure

Don’t click on suspicious messages or links, even if they appear to be posted by someone you know.

Flag any scam posts or messages you encounter on social media to the website, so they can help stop the threat from spreading.

Use unique, complicated passwords for all your accounts.

If the site offers multi-factor authentication, use it, and choose the highest privacy setting available.

Looking for more mobile security tips and trends? Be sure to follow @McAfee Home on Twitter, and like us on Facebook.

About the author: Gary Davis

Gary Davis is Chief Consumer Security Evangelist. Through a consumer lens, he partners with internal teams to drive strategic alignment of products with the needs of the security space. Gary also provides security education to businesses and consumers by distilling complex security topics into actionable advice.

He is a sought-after speaker on trends in digital security including the evolving threat landscape, privacy and securing the Internet of Things. He has presented at high profile conferences and events including Consumer Electronics Show, Mobile World Congress, South by Southwest, and the National Association of Broadcasters. He has also delivered digital security topics to major educational institutions including Harvard University and Columbia University.

Gary has appeared on multiple business, security and consumer lifestyle broadcast outlets, including CBS News, CNBC, NBC, ABC, FOX News, Bloomberg, WSJ MoneyBeat and quoted in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Money Magazine, CNN, Forbes, TIME Magazine and several more.

During his 9+ years at McAfee, he has held leadership roles in the consumer and enterprise divisions where he has helped shape various product portfolios and strategic direction along with advocating for cybersecurity education.

Prior to joining McAfee, he held senior management positions for more than 20 years in technology companies. Gary served on the board of directors of the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA).

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